Secularism or nationalism? : partisan differences in Québec's Bill 21 debate
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Political Science, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Despatie, Sarah
issued: 2022-01-05T22:44:31Z
issued: 2021
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: In 2018, the government of the province of Québec put forward and passed Bill 21, An Act Respecting the Laicity of the State, which proposed, among other measures, to ban public servants from wearing religious symbols at work. While ostensibly seeking to further secularism in the province, an analysis of the legislative debates makes it clear that the main question at issue was one of nationalism rather than secularism. Further, parties’ voting patterns were not split according to the more classic Québec party divisions of left-right economic positioning and stance on separatism. This thesis puts forward an analysis of the legislative debates surrounding Bill 21, using qualitative coding and textual analysis to determine party priorities in presenting opposition or support for the bill to the public in a highly mediatized debate. While each party puts forward a distinct narrative of what it means to belong in the Québec nation in these debates, party positioning on Bill 21 can be explained by speakers’ positioning on a plural-monist axis related to questions of nationalism, intersecting with normative ideals of how restrictive or inclusive the idea of the nation should be. This finding has interesting implications for the study of integration measures in other subnational states—notably, that understandings of nationhood, and who should be included in it, may prove more influential in shaping integration policy than other traditional party markers, such as economic left-right positioning or positioning on questions of separatism.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/80532
note: SECULARISM OR NATIONALISM? PARTISAN DIFFERENCES IN QUÉBEC’S BILL 21 DEBATE by Sarah Despatie B.A.H, Queen’s University, 2019 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Political Science) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2021 © Sarah Despatie, 2021 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: Secularism or Nationalism? Partisan Differences in Québec’s Bill 21 Debate submitted by Sarah Maxine Despatie in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science Examining Committee: Dr. Antje Ellermann, Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, UBC Supervisor Dr. Carey Doberstein, Associate Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract In 2018, the government of the province of Québec put forward and passed Bill 21, An Act Respecting the Laicity of the State, which proposed, among other measures, to ban public servants from wearing religious symbols at work. While ostensibly seeking to further secularism in the province, an analysis of the legislative debates makes it clear that the main question at issue was one of nationalism rather than secularism. Further, parties’ voting patterns were not split according to the more classic Québec party divisions of left-right economic positioning and stance on separatism. This thesis puts forward an analysis of the legislative debates surrounding Bill 21, using qualitative coding and textual analysis to determine party priorities in presenting opposition or support for the bill to the public in a highly mediatized debate. While each party puts forward a distinct narrative of what it means to belong in the Québec nation in these debates, party positioning on Bill 21 can b…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2022-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0406146
language: eng
degree discipline: Political Science
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Ellermann, Antje, 1971-
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/80532